No Problem

As I was eating lunch with a mom from school today she told me that usually when the Belgians say, "No problem," you're going to have some problems. I completely believe her. Our sea shipment arrived January 6th and the movers gave us a phone number to call when all the boxes were unpacked. They would return to pick up the empty boxes and protective paper with "no problem". I was so thankful.
We now have an entire car sized area of our garage filled with broken down boxes and packing paper. Every morning there is frost to scrape off the car windshields. We are ready for this pick up so we can start utilizing the garage again! Monday I called the hand written phone number that supposedly will put me through to someone who can set up a date the movers will return. After talking to 6 different people, each saying at different points in the conversations, "Is this a military move?" "No." "Oh, then I need to put you through to someone that can handle commercial moves." I thought I had finally reached the "commerical moves" person (5 times). The date was Wednesday between 3 and 5. I was here waiting and waiting. At 5:00 I called to see what had happened. I had heard numerous stories like this where people had waited all day for a repairman to come and they never showed. We had heard people say, "It's just the Belgian way." At 5:00 supposedly everyone had already gone home for the evening.
So I called again today and talked with 4 more people who finally put me through to hopefully the correct "commercial moves" person. We're trying this again. The date is Tuesday between 3 and 5.
I told K this is the last I'm dealing with it. My next move will be to call his sweet Human Resources lady (the company is really small out here so she has been helping us with many other things). She has been very protective of us, which I greatly appreciate, and has called in the past to check to make sure other services went as planned. I think I'll let her yell at them in french since I haven't had time to work on my Rosetta Stone software (still too busy grocery shopping - which I did find my pour septique item today!).

Poll

So I see the time has expired to vote about the chocolate chips. I about fell over when I saw them in the grocery store the other day for...drum roll please!

6.56 Euros!

That equals about $8.50. I can't do it. I can't pay $8.50 for a bag of chocolate chips. I'm going to have K pick them up from the store when he goes back to the states, sell them for about 5 Euros, and make a little profit for my traveling budget.

What We're Doing Now

Today is the big day. K is prepared with all the documents needed to obtain the visa for us to stay in Belgium for the next 2 years. I would give you all the boring details, but I'll save them for another time. Hopefully everything works out as planned and he receives it without too much drama.

I have been busy learning about more mistakes we've been making in our house, hopefully not to the point of destruction. The American Women's Club has a course that many new to Belgium wives take called "Hints for Living in Belgium". I have met a diverse group of ladies in this class and have definitely enjoyed getting to know them. Yesterday the topic was cleaning. Well, we all know I screwed up when we first arrived and washed my dishes in salt. Now I'm finding out that if I don't start adding anti-calcaire to my washing machine for clothes, then the pipes will accumulate build-up from the water being so hard here and I could potentially damage them. Also, since we live in an older home with a septic system, I need to be flushing something down the toilets that I still cannot find. I looked up and down aisles yesterday for about 30 min. trying to find a product that had a few key words on the packaging like "pour septique." I don't know what was wrong with my eyes, but I couldn't find it to save my life. It's now on my growing list of items to find. Before we left for Belgium, discussions with family and friends came up about if I was planning on working in Belgium. For us, I don't know how I could have gone to work since this whole thing of learning how to live in a different culture is enough of a job. The payment is just in a different currency...experiencing a different culture, living in close vicinity of many amazing historical sites, living in Europe!

Dreaded Day

Well the day has come that I was dreading...the day J's immune system couldn't keep her from getting sick, and therefore affecting her asthma. There have been many illnesses going around in the preschool area, with only 8 children present yesterday in her class. (It crossed my mind to keep her home Thurs. and Fri. so she could hopefully avoid germs.) Of course she comes off the bus with a cough. We're starting her breathing treatments, hoping to conquer this before it gets out of hand. The good news is: there's a doctor here that comes highly recommended by her school handbook and I just met him in my AWC (American Women's Club) "Hints for Living in Belgium" Class. Hopefully that's a sign from God to continue to trust that He is taking care of us.

Problems with Computers

I must have been thinking of fish when I posted the slide show of "Flounders". It's actually Flanders. No idea where the ou came from, but don't you just love computers when they don't do what you want? I've been trying to change the ou to an a, and the computer keeps acting up while I try to do that. So, I know the city shouldn't be Flounders, but instead Flanders. Until I can fix it...

Flanders Toy Museum Slide Show

Flanders Toy Museum

After only a few days of R being in school here, I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to the first grade field trip to the Flanders Toy Museum. The highlight for the children was the ride there on the top of a double decker bus. R was fortunate enough to get a prime front row seat on the ride to the museum.
Pieter Bruegel was a famous painter the museum was modeled after. The presentation included a small lesson on toys from the past, such as knuckle bones (taken from actual lambs long ago, but now we call them Jacks) and a look at the paintings of Bruegel. His paintings included children playing games from the 16th century. The tour guide asked the students to identify specific games they could see in the painting. After the discussion he then showed the students a picture frame around a door. Inside was a room painted to resemble the background of Bruegel's painting. He asked the children what was missing in the picture...kids! They were to be the children playing games as in the painting. How neat was that? Inside the room various real examples of toys from the past were behind glass for the children to see and discuss with the guide. The next room contained old games (yo-yo, jump rope, knuckle bones, marbles) the kids could try themselves. Legos were available to play with in a different location after a museum tour of cool Lego sculptures.
All the children brought 5 Euros and purchased a small toy as a souvenir. R bought 2 tops. One has a magnet on the spinner part where 2 small metal snakes can slither around as it moves. How cute!
All in all it was a great day. The children looked pretty sleepy on the bus ride back to school. That always means it's been a successful field trip!

Learning So Much!

J comes home from school and tells me that an architect, "Thinks, and then writes a building, then gives it to a builder." Who would've thought that our 4/newly 5 year old would be learning about architects in preschool, but with the vast amount of different types of architecture around here, why not?

R is busy reading up a storm! Some days he reads a whole chapter book in his bed before falling asleep! He is such a night owl, but a great reader. Today I had his parent teacher conference and his teacher said, "He's a great reader, but you already knew that right?" Yes, I did, but it's always wonderful to hear positive comments about your children!

The Transmission Still Works

K has now mastered driving the station wagon, so drawing straws is not needed. He wins the prize of driving it! He practiced last night on the big hilly parking lot and this morning impressed the whole family with his skills before we ventured off to church. It's about a 20 minute drive and he only stalled the car once while pulling out of our driveway (must've been nerves). I'm so proud of him!

Do We Still Have a Transmission?

Well I failed to mention that the station wagon is a manually operated car. K thought that would be fine since I have driven one before (although he has not). He thought I could teach him everything I knew. Little did he know it's been about 18 years ago that I've driven one, and even then I wasn't very good! I honestly probably drove my dad's car about 5 times on the real roads. It was like the blind leading the blind today as we started his driving lesson. We started off in a golf course parking lot down the street from us. After a little whiplash and the dog (who was sitting on my lap) flailing like a fish out of the water, he mastered the whole stop and then go to first gear. So we ventured out to only end up about 45 minutes later in a different parking lot with the stop sign on a hill. He stalled the car about 12-15 times on that hill as we just waved people through (pretty humbling experience) so they could go around and not have the chance of us rolling back into their car. We both came back home with our nerves shot. He vowed to go back later tonight when the workout center would be closed (with no cars around) to practice his hill maneuvers. He's actually there right now. We need one of us to improve or we'll have to draw straws to see who drives the Brady Bunch Mobile all next week.

J's 5th Birthday

It broke my heart when we were just days away from moving to Belgium and J one day says, "Mommy, when we move to Belgium, who's going to come to my birthday party?" At that moment I knew we had to make this day pretty special for her. I do believe she had a wonderful birthday. We took some pictures to prove it. I really tried hard to get some of her at Aqualibi (and maybe even to sneak one of K as well - How much $ do you think I could've gotten for it? Enough to put the kids through college?) It was so humid there and my camera lens was covered with moisture so we couldn't get any at the water park, however, we did capture some of the memorable moments that friends and family would enjoy.

Happy 5th Birthday J!

Oh Happy Day!

We have another car and internet! I'll start putting some pictures up this weekend that I really wanted family and friends to see! Make sure you check out the older posts for the new pictures!

Birthday Treat Solution

I would love to be able to report that I feverishly worked yesterday to come up with some party favors that would make Martha Stewart proud. Back home I could have pooled my resources and searched the internet for something creative like making playdough and tieing a few little cookie cutters onto the lid of a cute container (my friend Shelly's idea from home). I didn't have the internet yet. I could have driven around town in hopes of finding some great deal that J would be proud to bring to her classmates. I didn't have a car yet. So, with limited resources, limited time (basically we only had about an hour between when K got home from work and when the stores closed...no, they are not open 24/7 here), and limited knowledge of the area (is there even a dollar or euro store around?) we did what we could. The old standby of a princess baggie with candy had to work for this birthday. She could've cared less. She didn't even ask about bringing party favors. She was bringing her sprinkle filled cupcakes with pink icing and red sparkles on top. She was all smiles. As long as she's happy about her birthday, that's all that matters.

Beggers Can't be Choosers

So you probably already know our story about the car. K just recently received his work permit, which is needed for a visa. We should have obtained the visa before we came to Belgium (in the US at a Belgian embassy), however, Lilly was in the process of changing job assignments and in the midst of this we fell through the cracks. It ended up that we were scrambling to bring paperwork we thought we needed instead of someone from work directing us and taking care of our situation (thanks to our new friend Julie for saving us!). In Begium you need a Belgian card to get anything...a car, a credit card, etc. You have to check in at your local commune (city) and bring the necessary paperwork along with your visa to obtain the priceless Belgian Card! At the moment we only have one car, but like I said before, we can't get another until K goes back to the US to obtain his visa, then goes to the commune to get the Belgian card. This was getting a little tricky to plan our days and weeks with only one car. It was fine while I was at home unpacking and waiting for various people like the fuel guy, the internet guy, the rental furniture men, you get the point. The American Women's Club has a wonderful "Hints for Living in Belgium" class that comes highly recommended that I was going to take next week. So we needed another car for K to make it to work on time and me to the class on time as well.
So K calls me a few days ago and says, "They're going to drop off a car for you! Lilly will allow us to use one of theirs until we can get our own!" I was elated! FREEDOM! On top of my excitement, I find out it's a BMW! Wow! How much fun will that be...driving around a Beemer!
I get the phone call yesterday that someone will come by today and drop off the car between 9 and noon. Great! Can't wait! My first stop will be to take J's birthday treats to school. (I'll fill you in on those later.)
Outside my window this morning there's a green truck kind of like a semi truck. This can't be the guy I'm waiting for with my car. Well, then again, the car could be inside. So I hear our gate buzz and come to find out, he has the car in his truck! Oh boy! My coat is on and I dash outside to see my cute new BMW. I watch as he raises the truck top only to find a beautiful blue...station wagon. What? Yes, it's a beautiful color of blue, and I just love the color, but I'd rather be driving a scooter than a station wagon. (Surely the kids would fit in some kind of side car or something?) I have flashbacks to my youth when my parents owned a station wagon (actually two) and I thought it was so uncool. I had vowed never to own one. Now I'm in Belgium about to drive one for about a month and in my mind I hear, "Well, A, beggers can't be choosers." So, I'll praise God that I have a car today and hold my head high and drive my BMW station wagon around town.

Birthday Treat Ideas

Nicole, my job sharing buddy back home, had the great idea of buying Wii games as the birthday treat J can pass out to all her new friends. Sure! At $50 each (oh, but with the exchange rate, they would be 50 Euros, so about $70) and 14 children plus 2 teachers, that would only set me back by $1,000. Or maybe I could charter a bus and take them all to Disneyland Paris. We could have them all lined up with one hand each grabbing a long rope so we wouldn't lose anyone. I wonder how much that would cost? Hmmmm....we'll keep thinking about this.

More Silly Things

K and I bought a coffee table book before we moved here, Over Europe, which has aerial views of European landmarks and buildings. The pictures are breathtaking, but our kids have never been interested in them. J wanted to look at it tonight and I told her, "You don't even know where these pictures were taken." J responds as she's grabbing the book and climbing on my lap, "Yes I do, they're of Australia."

Birthday Dilemmas

J's 5th birthday is Friday and the school allows homemade treats, so she wanted me to make princess cupcakes for the big day to pass out to her new friends. That was the plan.
Now we need to go to plan B. (I don't know yet what that is, but we'll need to decide quickly.) As I was getting the kids off the bus this afternoon she steps off with a large bag like you would see from Toys 'R Us (or Toys 'R Yus like my kids say) filled with toys. "What is that?" I asked her. "Well, it was someone's birthday today," she replied. So, when it's someone's birthday they send other kids home with a bunch of presents? What's that about? Come to find out the bag contained candy (like Lik-A-Sticks), a big balloon, a small toy, and then a foot long glow doll like I would buy to have our children bring to someone's birthday party as their present. We are out of our league. I'm used to preschool back home where you bring in a small snack and a small goodie bag with stickers, a pencil, and some candy, not big toys like it's Christmas. I don't know yet what plan B will be, but we'll come up with something!

Still Settling In

We slowly but surely are settling in here. As more items in our house are fixed, others continue to break, always keeping K busy after a day at his real job (you know, the reason why we're here to begin with). K fixed our light in the dining room and sure enough the very next night the computer blew up. We both heard the 'pop' and smelled the smoke as he plugged it into the socket. Supposedly computers are compatible with the US and European voltage, however, our computer definitely isn't working! A super nice guy at K's work thinks he can fix it...wishful thinking I believe. I do hope he's right though, because right after the 'pop' the only thing I could think about were my Christmas addresses for family and friends that were saved to the hard drive. But like a wonderful wife, I kept my mouth shut, realizing K's stress level was rising.

Other dilemmas, like the light fixture, are showing signs of improving as well. I received a letter in the mail informing me of the arrival of the card at the local bank. The weather has cooperated and our fuel supply is lasting longer than we could have hoped. It could also be because we're back to normal Belgian weather: rain. Hopefully the fuel truck still comes tomorrow. We have heard horror stories about it taking even as long as a week after the confirmed date to receive fuel.

The children, as predicted, are learning more French than we could even hope to learn. After stepping off the school bus they both start speaking with some new type of French accent on every word they say. They call me Mama emphasizing the last 'a' like the French do. I don't know if they are mimicking their teachers' accents, but they definitely put a little French twist to the English words. J and R were debating at the dinner table a few nights ago as to the French word for 'mitten'. R thought it was mitten with a French accent placed on the word and J thought it was a word sounding something like goulash. After much debate and us thinking J was just making up her word (she is the dramatic one) we finally found out that they were both right. People at K's work confirmed that both words were for different kinds of mittens.

The Agony is Part of the Fun

One of K's friends has lived in Belgium now for a few years and has a saying,"The agony is part of the fun." We're living proof of that quote...if you can really call it fun. We recieved a letter in the post (that's the mail for you nonEuropean people) stating our credit cards arrived at our bank and we needed to pick them up. So Saturday morning we drove to the bank only to find K's credit card, but not mine. In the US there were at least 3 credit card applications in my mailbox every week begging me to join with their company and go in debt the American way. Nobody receives that kind of mail here. The credit cards are much more controlled. For some reason my paperwork didn't get done when we met with the previous bank employee the week before Christmas so now I don't have a bank card or credit card (both which were to be taken care of at the same time). So now K controls all the finances (at least until I get my cards!).

Next comes the fuel situation. Some houses, like ours, rely on heating fuel for the winter. A call is made by the homeowner to have fuel delivered in a truck, and supposedly 2000 Liters lasts all winter until you have your house completely open for the movers to bring in your belongings on the coldest day in 10 years. That along with us having some other uncommonly cold days caused our fuel to deplete quickly. Our landlord was quite nervous for us so K called for more fuel to be delivered this Thursday or Friday. So now K is freaked out about it and we are all wearing three layers of clothing to conserve our fuel. We're praying for warmer weather...the Lord must have heard because today the sun was out and it reached close to 40.

While we're still discussing the agony I must add our dining room light to the list. It went out on us Thursday and we were debating on calling an electrician which would probably take a month before someone could come fix it...everything else takes about a month, why would an electrician be any different? My aunt Sally could easily bring my uncle Mike (an electrician) with her during her July visit. What's another few months when you already have to wait at least one? We had the "bright" idea to call him and see if he could give us some advice over the phone as to how to fix it. K figured out the problem, and while it is still not fixed (remember we couldn't shop for the new part because every store is closed on Sundays, agh!) we will buy the part tomorrow and fix it. Thanks for the advice Uncle Mike!!!

While K and I were discussing the agony this morning, the children seem unphased by it all. Their only concern is who gets to pick the next Wii game to play while Mom and Dad are unpacking. I guess while we're experiencing the agony, they're having the fun.

Although this doesn't quite fit into our story, it was part of someone else's agony and hopefully never becomes part of ours. While shopping a few weeks ago at a local grocery shop we witnessed a mugging. I have yet to tell my parents because I didn't want to scare them, but now they'll know after reading this. Mugging is fairly common here, with very little other types of crime. In my 34 years of living in Indiana the only crimes I really witnessed were traffic violations. It's just a little scary to witness a mugging within my first 3 weeks of living here. I haven't carried my purse anywhere since.

Continued Silly Things

We were discussing what to pack for school lunches tomorrow and R gets 2 snacks, one in the AM and the other in the PM. He was telling me which food item went into the AM baggie and J said,"Now what is he bringing for his BM?"

Belgian Treats

Belgium is known for a few things:

Lace, waffles, beer, and can you guess the fourth? My kids sure enjoy it, even on toast! That's when it's pretty messy.

Three Kings' Day

January 6th is the Feast of the Epiphany or Three Kings' Day in which Belgians eat the galette des rois (a flaky pastry type cake with almond filling) to commemorate the visit of the Three Magi to the Baby Jesus. J celebrated this day at school and was the lucky one to receive the slice with the lucky charm. I wonder if the teachers planned it that way since she's the new kid? She also was then given the golden crown to wear and crowned queen for the day.

The Silly Things They Say

I only remember a few, but as I think of more I'll add them:

During dinner last night J was striking a dramatic thinking pose with her eyes rolled toward the sky and R says, "J, are you tryng to see your brain?"

On the flight to Belgium in December (when we were actually moving over) J looks at all the people on the flight and says, "Are all of these people moving to Belgium too?"

School in Belgium VS. School in Indiana

Well R is male, and trying to get information out of him is difficult. You just have to take it in pieces, basically whenever he's ready to deliver. So we found out through discussion at the dinner table last night that he really enjoys school here for a few reasons...snack time (AM and PM, and recess...three of them. Yes, he told us there were three recesses. He usually tells the truth, so as I was eating my Big Mac (our first time to eat McD's since we've been here) and wondering if that was truly the case, K says, "Well, they can do things like that in Belgium." OK - So will he ever want to go back to the states?


Then J wakes up this morning and says she doesn't want to go to school today because it's Mommy's birthday and she wants to stay and celebrate with me. You mean, unpack? Because that's all I'm going to be doing. Exciting, I know! So after a little probing, I find out that she doesn't like school at the moment because of the weather at recess. She is getting too cold. So I ask her, "Well, do you think maybe we should consider wearing pants to school instead of a dress? Maybe you'd stay warmer that way." I convince her that's a great idea, so you know she must have been extremely cold to go against her girly nature!

Belgian Winter Update

Well school was in session today and, yes(!!!!!), the movers are here unloading and unpacking on the coldest day in Belgium in 10 years (at least that's what they told us). I guess that goes hand in hand with the 10 year record snowfall yesterday which ended up being 6 inches. So the persevering guys are working hard and allowing me to try out my new Senseo coffeemaker which brews by the cup for your individual coffee pleasure. The only problem is that instead of having a huge pot of steaming coffee waiting for them, we brew it individually and it takes some time. But I'm not complaining, I'm just thankful our belongings have arrived! The guys have encountered a few obstacles with all the snow, but are problem solving and making the best of a difficult situation. This is the view from our backyard.

Snow Surprises

The plan was to wake up at 6:00 to give us enough time to get everyone ready and the kids on the school bus. We would then make the school's "new parent" meeting at 8:45, drive K to work, let A take the car to run a few errands, go home to clean before the movers come tomorrow (yes, tomorrow!) with our belongings, walk to the bus stop to pick up the kids, drive to K's work and finally pick him up to go home and relax.

When we woke this morning it had snowed. It kept snowing heavily. (I eyeballed it and it looks like 5 inches to me.) The last time it snowed this much was 10 years ago the Belgians say. On the first day of school for my 4 and 6 year old. On their first day to ride the bus...ever. I was a nervous wreck. (I've already mentioned this before, but we were not forewarned because we still don't have any cable hook ups yet.)

They ended up being on the bus for 2 hours while we were 8 cars behind, stuck in traffic that usually takes 10 minutes. But not today, the first day of school for my children who have only lived here for three weeks. We are aquainted with maybe 5 couples all living in different areas, so we really don't run into people we know very often, actually we haven't run into anyone we know yet. Everyone is a stranger at this point, even the bus driver, who didn't speak a lick of English (granted, I should know a lot more French) when I placed the children on the bus. If I would have known the traffic jam was right around the corner, I would have kept them in the car and driven them to school even though they were elated at the opportunity to ride the school bus...better yet, I would have taken the liberty to cancel school and kept them home.

We promised since this was their first day to ride the bus (we were more nervous than them of course) to be at school when they stepped off so they wouldn't become lost in the crowd of kids. I can't imagine a 4 year old just standing there with high schoolers exiting oblivious of the fear in her eyes as she realizes she has no clue where her classroom is located. As we continued to wait in traffic (remember this was a long time and we were unsure about whether he had other students to get from different roads), I was wondering...what are my children thinking?...are they thinking they don't ever want to ride the bus if it takes this long every day?...should I go knock on the bus door and get them?...do they need to potty yet?...good thing they went when they first got up...are they arguing?...sure hope not because sometimes when R gets mad at her, he has a look on his face like he could strangle her...hopefully he doesn't...is R making up new games for them like he usually does when they're bored?...or is J wanting to play her usual that we all get tired of: eye-spy?

My fears vanished when I arrived to school by foot (K let me out of the car early so I could run up the street to keep true to my promise) just as a cute high schooler was helping my children off the bus, and to their classrooms! Just like the staff had promised when we visited the school!

J stepped off and immediately accidentally fell in the snow while R said, "That bus took forever, now I'm late for class!" At least he has a conscience and wants to make right choices...even though sometimes we have no control of the situation like when we have snow surprises. They say school may be closed tomorrow because of ice surprises. The temperature is supposed to drop tonight. I'll keep you posted.


Sidenote: They say there was not an accident this morning, but that traffic can be horrible when it snows because people get nervous. Did I mention there are no snow plows? It might be because it doesn't snow here very often or because there are too many little speed bumps and other obstacles!

Will We Ever Figure Everything Out?

When we arrived to Belgium it took us about 2 hours to do our initial grocery shopping...you know, the basics like clothes detergent, food for a few meals, dishwasher detergent, etc. We were focusing on purchasing all the items we would need in the next 24 hours and then go from there. I can't count the number of times I referred to my English to French dictionary, however, we were quickly discovering grocery terminology was just not included in this book. So, we relied on product pictures like the clean sparkling glass on the box of dishwasher detergent. After getting "home" and washing dishes for a few days with this generic detergent (I bought the brand that was sold by the grocery store) I thought the dishes would never get clean. For some reason, in particular, the glasses the kids drank milk from were not getting clean, which baffled me. So every time we ate I needed to scrub the dishes down and then arrange them in the dishwasher? That's too much work, and what's the point in having a dishwasher if it doesn't work properly?
Surely the name brand stuff would be better, and it was...for a few more days. Then we added JetDry to the dishwasher after some friends described where to place it. (It's not in the same spot as in the US.) Now we had the name brand detergent and JetDry to make our glasses sparkle. We thought we were set! The dishes appeared clean for a week and then our glasses went from sparkle to...white film. A lot of white film...all over the glasses and the inside of the dishwasher...it was gross. Finally, K (don't know why we didn't think to do this from day 1) looked for the manual. What a great idea! The manuals we have stashed away in the garage are in about 5 different languages. Some in French, German, some other languages I don't even recognize, and a few in English. After reading up on the dishwasher, we discovered that the generic "sel" (salt) in French I had bought was not really detergent. I'm embarrassed to say that we were washing our dishes with salt for a whole week after we arrived. However, it does still go in the dishwasher and is needed to clean properly, but not to act as the actual detergent. I never had to add salt to my dishwasher in the states...so the moral to the story is: Always look for the manual and read the directions! Or, purchase a dictionary that has plenty of grocery store words! Or, don't rely on pictures!

Iguanodons Everywhere!

We walked in to see 9 huge dinosaur fossils of Iguanodons built up in the Museum of Natural Sciences in Brussels. They were enormous! Found in Asia, these fossils were amazing. Also included in the exhibit were a Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, Diplodocus, and many smaller creatures of long ago. We spent about three hours browsing other preserved animals from other lands as well.
R was able to try out some hands on devices where the leg of dinosaurs were compared to hinges while J's artistic nature came out when she used a computer to depict her own imaginary dinosaur.

Shout Out to my Super Smart Students!

Congratulations to the following students who answered my temperature question correctly:

Maria

Visitors

The plane reservations are already made for my parents, two aunts, and my grandma...YES...I just said my grandma. She's 85 (I think...but who's counting?) years old and tells us she already has her bags packed to come visit in July. She is a survivor of 2 heart attacks and I still can't get over the shock that she is actually flying 8 hours from either Chicago or Washington D.C. to come visit us. But then again, as they keep reminding me throughout the years, I am the first grandchild. So, if any other family and friends are interested, the doors to our home are open to you. The fright of buying a Speedo might scare some off, so K has put together a foolproof Super Speedo Workout for you just in case you want to look your personal best at the water park. You know that if you come visit us, that's one of the tourist attractions we'll visit especially if you have kids. (Oh, and by the way, I have to type an apology to my brother and sister-in-law. When I said on an earlier post that our small group had purchased the season pass for us, I wasn't thinking clearly and I forgot to mention that it was our small group and them as well. So, thanks Deborah and Brian! We have been there three times so far and are loving it!)

This picture is of my grandma, my cousin's new baby, and of course, J.